Mapping, Postmodernism, Indigenous People And The Changing Direction Of North American Cartography

• Published in: Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization
• Main Author: RUNDSTROM, ROBERT A
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1991
• Subjects: Arctic; eskimo*; inuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/5j46-51t2-7m42-316g; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/5J46-51T2-7M42-316G

Cartographers have an opportunity now to make fundamental changes in the direction and scope of academic cartography. As a catalyst for change, J.B.Harley's proposal for a 'postmodern' cartography is important for text-based societies like ours, but it will restrict our studies unnecessarily if taken alone. I provide a critique of postmodernist thought as applied to cartography, focusing especially on its inability to account for mapping in non-textual, non-Cartesian cultures where action and process are often crucial. Consequently, I propose a process approach to cartography as an additional basis for reorienting the field. Finally, I couple this approach with map deconstruction to interpret recent Inuit (Eskimo) toponymic mapping as part of a lengthy cross-cultural dialogue about Arctic North America.